Category Archives: Modernization

Sometimes I Can Only Muster The Strength To . . .

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. . . read headlines. Recently, I’ve been diagnosed with “CEFS” or Current Events Fatigue Syndrome.

Some recent headlines are funny enough that I don’t even have to read the article. My spirit is already lifted.

I Became Extremely Hot In The Pandemic. My Husband Did Not.

Okay, so maybe I didn’t read it because I was afraid the Good Wife wrote it.

Some recent headlines are so cringe-worthy I can’t bring myself to read the article. This is CEFS in action. In increasing order of cringe:

Misinformation Is A Pandemic That Doesn’t Have A Headline

Tie for First. . .

Election Offices And School Board Meetings Could Become Weapons-free Zones In Washington

Report: World’s 10 Richest Men Doubled Their Wealth During COVID Pandemic

And sometimes since I know how the story is going to turn out, it’s unnecessary to read on.

Help! My Husband Throws Away My Things Without Asking In The Name of “Minimalism.”

Dude’s wife divorces him. He moves into an apartment a few steps below the one he lived in during college. Can’t afford any real furniture to speak of, any art, anything. Shortly thereafter, dies from loneliness in his minimalist “paradise”.

Okay, so maybe I didn’t read that because I was afraid the Gal Pal may have authored it as well.

Paragraph To Ponder

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“When men encounter problems at work or elsewhere in their lives, they are much less likely than women to talk about it, in either public or private. Written accounts of male burnout are hard to find. Men are about 40 percent less likely than women to seek counseling for any reason. And the well-documented crisis in male friendship means that many men have no one aside from their spouse or partner they feel they can open up with emotionally. Single men often have no one at all; when they burn out, they may do so alone.”

From “How Men Burnout” by Jonathan Malesic.

Thursday Required Reading

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Harvard first year becomes youngest person ever to serve in Icelandic Parliament. Extra credit if you can spell her name.

Kohler can now run a bath with just a voice command. Need.

Forget giant asteroids, the Doomsday Glacier is coming for us all.

Next up in Ethiopia. Deepest bench in the world.

Sign of the apocalypse.

The Single Best Line In “Don’t Look Up”

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Among many contenders. Leonardo, I mean Dr. Mindy, at the Last Supper, when he reflected, “We really did have it all, didn’t we?” “It” wasn’t the materialistic, resume building, status-driven hedonic treadmill that entraps so many. “It” was family life. “It” was being in nature. “It” was preparing meals together, telling stories, and enjoying food and wine. “It” was knowing a few people well. And “it” was being known.

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“Don’t Look Up”

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A close friend asked my opinion on Netflix’s newest BIG budget film with an all-star cast.

Before watching “Don’t Look Up” I heard some of the buzz including the fact that half of people loved it and half hated it.

I’m firmly in the first camp, in fact, it’s easily among my favorite films of the year, if not the very best. At first, as I sat on my indoor bike as the credits rolled, I couldn’t imagine what the negative nellies were thinking, then it dawned on me. The film is a brilliant, hilarious satire of popular culture, but especially of our political landscape’s right wing. For the Pro-Trump, anti-vax, “Make America Great Again” viewers it had to have hit WAY too close to home. As is written in the Torah, “We see things not as they are, but as we are.”

At almost two and half hours, one reviewer who liked it said it was too long. He’s wrong, there are no lulls, it’s non-stop searing social commentary from the drop.

It’s also scary as hell. Not because of the asteroid heading towards earth, but because it feels like a highly credible glimpse into our near-term future as a deeply divided nation. The filmmakers predict our future is one where exorbitantly wealthy and deeply flawed individuals have a disproportionate effect on public life; politicians and scientists are powerless in light of those individuals; and things go from bad to worse with regards to social and traditional media.

Is it too late to emigrate to Canada? Is the border between our countries a sufficient defense against the downward spiral depicted in “Don’t Look Up”?

Some on Twitter would take exception to me labeling it a satire. They’re arguing it’s a science fiction film since Leonardo DiCaprio is married to an “age-appropriate” woman.

Must maintain a sense of humor.

Do You Remember?

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That kid in science class that was so smart they had a hard time relating to others of lesser intellect. Yeah, the one with thick hard plastic framed glasses that you weren’t very nice to. Your similarly insecure friends and you called her a brainiac and other not so nice things.

Remember losing track of her after high school? Probably not since since no one ever paid her much attention to begin with.

While you were spinning your wheels drinking too much and trying to “find yourself”, she completed three degrees in biology and other sciences. Threw in a post-doc for good measure.

Initially at least, you may wanna call her Doctor at the next reunion, but why would she attend given the grief your knucklehead friends and you gave her?

She’s a contact lens wearing tenured professor of epidemiology now with 162,000 twitter followers. Drives a Tesla Model S Plaid and knows more about viruses than all your high school homeboys and you combined. Turn on the right cable news station at the right time and you might catch her helping everyone who slept through science better understand covid’s innumerable complexities.

Finally, she’s the center of attention.

Monday Required Reading

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There is no vacation from reading. Indeed, some take the view that there’s no vocation, but reading.

The rich vs the very, very rich: the Wentworth Golf Club rebellion. The makings of a great novel.

The very, very rich vs the Mormon church. I’d read that novel too.

It’s time for car companies to shut up about electric vehicles and just ship them. Amen.

Norway’s most popular cycle route. Yes please.

Here’s what schools are doing to try to address students’ social-emotional needs. Shame on me, I shoulda lead with this.

Consciously Turn From The Dark

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For me, the Efficiency Evangelists who preach a Life Hack gospel breed serious cynicism. Because their gospel message seemingly follows from a mindless amalgam of capitalism, social status, and materialism.

But since my time is increasingly finite, I’m down with “efficiency lite”; meaning making the most of my time, ideally without the capitalism, social status, and materialism baggage. This means I routinely read book, t.v., and film reviews to improve my odds of choosing content that is especially compelling. This also means being at least somewhat intentional about who I hang with. I seek content and people that either inform, inspire, challenge, lighten, and/or uplift myself and others.

Unlike the Efficiency Evangelists, I don’t want to accomplish more, I just don’t want to waste my time on people and content that breed contempt for this one precious and wild life.

Is it just me, or does it seem like we’re surrounded by people and content that breeds contempt for damn near everything? Increasingly, the glass isn’t half full, it’s bone dry.

This means my task is two-fold, actively seeking the light in terms of uplifting people and content while actively rejecting the dark. Therefore, I have to get better at not reading and watching some content, not engaging with some social media, and not interacting with some people.

When the Good Wife and I sit down to dinner, we sometimes ask, “What did you do today?” What I’m reflecting on here gets at another important question we are not in the habit of asking which is, “What didn’t you do today? Who didn’t you see? What did you choose not to read? What media did you disengage from? What social media did you purposely skip?”

To live more wild, socially redeeming, precious, fulfilling lives, we have to be wiser and more self-disciplined about combatting the cynical, spiteful, mean-spirited non zero-sumness that dominates our media. That cynical, spiteful, mean-spirited non zero sumness has done as much or more damage to our spirits, interpersonal relations, and democracy, as the ‘rona has to our physical health.

With apologies to the non-sports minded, we have to play much, much better defense and consciously turn from the dark.

p.s. Did I ever tell you about the time I did a reverse dunk in a winter bball tournament with gloves on?

The Covid Ball Is In The NBA’s Court

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From “The NBA’s Big Covid Choice” by Ethan Strauss.

“The NBA actually has an opportunity here to end the precautionary moment, or at least signal its ebb. If commissioner Adam Silver steps forward and announces that his league is ending test protocols and treating this admittedly terrible disease in much the same way we deal with some other respiratory illnesses, that’s a potential cultural shift. The basic plan would be to test players and team officials only if they’re obviously sick (and sit said players if they test positive). And no more of the contact tracing that’s gummed up work behind the scenes of a highly mobile industry. The message could be simple: Look, we can’t functionally operate like it’s 2020; now that the disease is endemic, and vaccines are widely available, we must move into 2022.

This could be an influential move for all the reasons the NBA lockdown was important back in 2020, but now with one new one: The NBA is the archetypal blue state sport. The Covid question has broken along partisan lines, with Democrat-voting spaces far more likely to embrace interventionist measures. If the NBA announces a relaxation, there’s an element of “Nixon goes to China,” a credibility inherent to going against the grain. Such a proclamation grants space if not permission for other non-red world institutions to follow suit and open up despite the surge.”

Do read the whole thing. As thoughtful a rumination on our predicament with the “invisible enemy” as I’ve read. Granted, I might feel that way because I agree with Strauss.